1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductive belt, a method of manufacturing the semiconductive belt, and an electrophotographic imaging apparatus including the semiconductive belt. More particularly, the invention relates to a semiconductive belt including a side-chain liquid crystalline polymer and a liquid conductive polymer, a method of manufacturing, and an electrophotographic imaging apparatus including the semiconductive belt.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electrophotographic imaging apparatus includes components, such as a photoconductor, a developer roller, a toner supply roller, a toner layer regulating unit, a charging unit, a cleaning blade, a laser scanning unit, etc. The developer roller is disposed between the toner supply roller and the photoconductor. In general, toner is transferred from the toner supply roller to the developer roller. The toner is uniformly distributed on the developer roller by the toner layer regulating unit installed on the developer roller and the toner is charged via friction.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional electrophotographic imaging apparatus. The operation of the conventional electrophotographic imaging apparatus will be described below.
A charging unit 16 charges a photoconductor 11, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoconductor 11 by a laser scanning unit (LSU) 19 radiating a laser beam on the photoconductor 11. A toner supply roller 13 supplies toner 14 to a developer roller 12. As the toner 14 passes through a toner layer regulating unit 15, the toner 14 is formed into a thin layer with a uniform thickness and is charged by high friction. Next, the thin layer of the toner 14 is developed by the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductor 11 into a toner image. A transfer roller (not shown) transfers the developed toner image to a paper, and a fuser (not shown) fuses the transferred toner image on the paper. Also, a cleaning blade 17 cleans residual toner 18 remaining after being transferred to the photoconductor 11.
In particular, an intermediate transfer belt (ITB) is used to transfer the developed toner image from the photoconductor 11 to paper, which is a final medium to which the developed toner image is transferred. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional intermediate transfer belt unit including an ITB.
The ITB receives toner electrostatically and repeatedly transferred from a latent image on the photoconductor drum so that a superimposed toner image of a desired color is formed thereon, and transfers the toner image to paper.
The conventional ITB can have seams or no seams and is formed of polycarbonate, polyimide, ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene, etc.
In general, a seamless ITB is preferred than an ITB having seams. When an ITB has seams, additional devices, for example, are required for detecting the locations of seams and controlling the position of an image. Hence, a printing system often becomes complicated and thus, the manufacturing costs thereof increase. Also, because of the seams, a cleaning blade is more likely to be worn out and damaged, which leads to reduced cleaning ability, damage to the photoconductor, and shortened lifespan.
However, there is a limit to the manufacture of seamless ITBs on a large scale since a manufacturing process thereof involve discontinuous processes including injecting a source solution and additives into a mold using a centrifugal molding method and heating and rotating the mold at a high speed for a duration of time. To overcome this limitation, the number of molds can be increased. However, if the size of a final product is changed, the mold itself has to be reformed. When using single blow molding, which is widely used to manufacture a seamless ITB, additives may not be sufficiently dispersed, and the mechanical strength of the ITB is small.
To obtain an ITB with heat resistance, abrasion resistance, and fatigue resistance, polyimide or ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene is preferred over a polycarbonate as a material for the ITB. However, polyimide and ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene are expensive. In addition, when a conductive material, such as carbon black, etc., is added to obtain electrical conductivity, the conductive material is not easily dispersed in a belt, the resistance of the belt is non-uniform, and the surface of the belt is rough.